Inescapable Despair (Song of Despair AU)

Chapter 3: Joy and Happiness

Satchiko had been playing games in the arcade for hours now, and recently Kazuki had come to join her. He seemed happier than usual, and Satchiko took notice of this.

As Satchiko finished another game, she looked over at Kazuki. "Hey, Kazuki, what happened? You're so happy and I wanna know why!" She exclaimed with a smile.

Kazuki blushed a bit, averting his gaze. "Oh, um... well, Momo and I are together now, that's why."

Satchiko was a little surprised, but her smile widened and she pulled Kazuki into a hug. "That's awesome! You stopped being so dense!" She pulled away with a light laugh. "Momo's probably dying from happiness right now."

"I'm just still surprised she actually likes me back..." Kazuki muttered with a small smile.

"You have no idea. She's insanely in love with you." Satchiko slowly shook her head.

"I dunno about that..." Kazuki replied, "But I feel so lucky right now."

"I love that more relationships are forming~! This is just gonna bring us all closer together!" Satchiko exclaimed. "Hopefully no one will kill again..."

As soon as she finished speaking, Kaiya burst through the door with a terrified expression. "I-it happened again...!"

Satchiko immediately was gripped with fear, horror coursing through her veins at the thought of yet another one of her classmates being dead. At least Kaiya's still okay.

"Who?" Kazuki asked, also appearing frightened.

"J-just come!" Kaiya said, and she led the two out of the building. She brought them quickly over to the school, then led them through the hallways into a classroom.

It was a mess. Desks were overturned, the window at the back was shattered, but what stood out the most were the two corpses on the ground.

The first one Satchiko noticed was Jirou. His body was covered in cuts; arms, legs, torso, everything. His glasses were broken, an eye gouged out. He still held an expression of pure agony. Satchiko felt sick and had to look away, tears pooling in her eyes and the gruesome sight.

Seeing Mai's body didn't help at all. Satchiko didn't know if the fact that her head was missing was more or less disturbing.

"N-no way..." Kazuki took a step back, looking horrified. "Two of them..?"

"This has to be the worst one yet! Who could do this?!" Satchiko hugged Kaiya, burying her face in her shoulder to block out the scene. The lucky student flinched when the monitors switched on.

"Upupu~! A corpse has been discovered! After a period of time, a class trial will be held!"